Meditations for Extremely Divided Times

If you’re like me, you are feeling the upset and stress from our community and our country being so divided at this time (on many different issues).

Meditation is a scientifically proven strategy for reducing anxiety and stress.

So, I’ve selected a few meditations specifically to help you find more inner peace and calm in the face of division and opposition and even hate.

The “Just Like Me” Compassion Meditation

This can help us deal with difficult people and those with wildly differing opinions. It’s a way to bridge the gap and recognize that despite extremely differing opinions, we are all part of humankind.

This exercise is from the Avatar Compassion Project. http://avatarexplorers.com/avatar-compassion-exercise.html

With attention on the difficult person, repeat to yourself slowly:

Just like me this person is seeking some happiness for his or her life.

Just like me this person is trying to avoid suffering in his or her life.

Just like me this person has known sadness, loneliness and despair.

Just like me this person is seeking to fulfill his or her needs.

Just like me this person is learning about life.

Just like me: [you can add your own reflection]

It can help to remember that we are all part of humankind, all struggling and all influenced by our various experiences, fears, beliefs and opinions.

Black Lives Matter Meditation

Psychologist Dr. Candice Nicole has 2 guided audio meditations on her website:

Meditation for Cultivating an Anti-Racist Mindset: A 17-minute guided meditation for White people who identify as allies to Black Lives Matter using mindfulness, affirmation, and metta (loving-kindness).

She also offers a Black Lives Matter Meditation for Healing Racial Trauma.

Loving Kindness Meditation

Loving Kindness meditation (also called Metta meditation) comes from Buddhist traditions. It consists primarily of connecting to the intention of wishing ourselves and others happiness and peace.

Metta is first practiced toward yourself, since we must be able to extend kindness to ourselves in order to be capable of extending it to others.

[Note: reading these instructions may take longer than actually doing the meditation :-)]

This practice teaches us how to extend loving kindness out from ourselves to others in concentric rings (moving out from yourself with the “easier” people first and then to those you may perceive as more “difficult”):

• • • • • Yourself
        • Dearly loved friend
        • Neutral acquaintances you know casually
        • Your community as a whole
        • A difficult person
        • A difficult group
        • Your whole country
        • The whole world

Here is a quick and easy way to start. Sit in a quiet space and close your eyes. Start with three deep and cleansing breaths (in through the nose and out through the mouth) and then just breathe normally. Repeat the phrases below silently to yourself as you imagine love and compassion flowing generously from your heart.

With every phrase, allow yourself to relax into the intentions they express, as you pause and take 2 slow and deep breaths…

May I be well.
May I be happy.
May I be peaceful.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.

Next bring to mind a dearly loved friend and use the same process:

May my friend be well.
May my friend be happy.
May my friends be peaceful.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.

Next bring to mind neutral acquaintances you know casually and use the same process:

May they all be well.
May they all be happy.
May they all be peaceful.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.

Continue with the next group:

May my community be well.
May my community be happy.
May my community be peaceful.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.

Continue with a difficult person. Call the difficult person to mind, and notice any discomfort or tendency you may have to think badly of that person. Then take a breath and instead, wish them well:

May he/she be well.
May he/she be happy.
May he/she be peaceful.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.

Continue the process with each group until you are focusing on the whole world:

May all beings be well.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings know love, compassion, peace and harmony.
Add any other loving intentions that resonate with you.